Chapter 474: The Couch Where One Lies on One's Side, the Fierce Tiger Manifests

"So, you mean it really was a former 'acquaintance'." Tang Luo said.

"Caotou Shen?" Zhu Bajie said.

Although Erlang Shen belonged to the Heavenly Court, his situation was rather special; due to some historical reasons, Erlang Shen did not reside in the Heavenly Court, but dwelled at Guanjiangkou.

At the same time, he had one thousand two hundred Caotou Shen under his command, among whom were humans, immortals, yaoguai, and ghosts — the composition was extremely complex.

It was a force uniquely belonging to Erlang Shen.

Without a doubt, the majority of the Caotou Shen under Erlang Shen's command knew Tang Luo; even if they had never met him, they had heard of him.

"It's possible." Tang Luo finally calmed down and began to analyze, "If it's a Caotou Shen, it at least proves that the Erlang Shen of this mission world is the Erlang Shen we know, not some other Erlang Shen."

"If not, then Suo Chao's disappearance might just be an accident; perhaps his hometown happened to be robbed, and we just happened to catch up."

Obviously, the probability of the former was much greater.

But the problem lies in: if that Suo Chao really was one of the Caotou Shen, why did he run upon seeing Tang Luo?

Tang Luo had dealings with Erlang Shen and the Seven Saints of Meishan, but with the Caotou Shen, there truly wasn't much intersection — at most, a single meeting.

He hadn't beaten up any Caotou Shen either; for a Caotou Shen to flee at the sight of him felt unreasonable.

Thinking it over carefully, it still seemed somewhat inexplicable.

Then...

"Let's go, ask around some more." Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie walked toward the main hall of this vast Black Emperor Temple.

The Black Emperor statue enshrined there was the Black Emperor's most deeply ingrained and also most common image — the War God Black Emperor.

The other four Heavenly Emperors' most common and deeply ingrained images were also this one.

The reason being, in this world yaomo guiguai wreaked havoc; only immortals who could drive them away were good immortals.

Like the Xiaotian Quan Tang Luo saw in the Dog God Temple, its image was that of a "gatekeeping dog," its main duty being to guard the peace of one side.

On the plaza outside the main hall, a portion of the believers were still kneeling prostrate; they had not risen, their faces carrying a hint of unease and terror.

The immortals had clearly manifested; why did they suddenly vanish without a trace?

For many believers, this situation was no less shocking than discovering the sky had suddenly collapsed a distance downward; they were anxious and unsettled.

And within this anxiety, some people's prayers and supplications to the immortals became even more devout.

The direction they kowtowed and prayed toward was the position where that vanguard Suo Chao — who came fast and ran even faster — had appeared, which was the Bestowal of Books Hall.

Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie concealed their figures slightly, did not engage with them, and went straight to the outside of the main hall's grand doors.

The main hall's grand doors were still open; because of the immortal manifestation just now, all the believers had gone outside.

Including several Daoists in the main hall.

Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie entered the main hall and shut the door.

Many believers turned around, saw the main hall's grand doors now tightly shut, and their expressions were startled and doubtful.

What happened again?

The majestic main hall, its doors a full five meters high, incomparably thick, so heavy they required several people pushing together to move — why had they closed silently without a sound?

Could it be another immortal manifestation?

No, compared to an immortal manifestation, yaomo causing trouble clearly fit this situation better.

Some people immediately lost their nerve and began to move away from this main hall.

In the past, temples, especially grand main halls like this, could give them an extremely strong sense of security.

But today, this sense of security had already vanished.

If they were ordinary people, they might be stubbornly convinced the immortals were invincible, that absolutely nothing would go wrong, and believe even more devoutly.

Outside the main hall, many people's identities were not ordinary; able to become superiors among men, they naturally had their own thoughts.

However, this did not mean the incense power these people brought was less than that of the devout ones.

Incense power is not simply the power of faith; it involves all aspects.

It's not that whoever believes more sincerely than others necessarily produces more incense power.

Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie, regarded by some as yaomo, did not commit any yaomo acts in the main hall.

They examined this grand hall.

"Truly rich." Zhu Bajie exclaimed in admiration.

All the statues inside the hall were made of gold — a portion were pure gold, gold from inside to out.

Another portion, lower-status immortals, were only plated with a layer of gold on the outside.

The most conspicuous was naturally the War God Black Emperor; outside the pure gold statue, color was also applied — a suit of dark-gold armor, seated on the throne, a full ten meters tall, imposing and weighty.

Beside him stood two silver-armored young generals, pale-faced and beardless, bearing a distinguished air.

On the wall behind the statue, a painting of the Manifest Sage True Lord was also hung.

This painting gave a rather perfunctory feeling; whether the brushwork, paper quality, or mounting, all were extremely crude.

It just hung there so casually, completely blocked by the War God Black Emperor.

Without deliberately going around, one simply couldn't see this painting.

It also looked quite old; the colors were very dull.

Obviously, in this "War God Hall," the War God Black Emperor was the sole protagonist; the Manifest Sage True Lord above the Five Directional Heavenly Emperors also had to step back — not just a little step back as a junior.

It was a very far step back.

"Master, these Five Directional Heavenly Emperors — they wouldn't be the Meishan bunch, would they?" Zhu Bajie said, "The headcount doesn't match."

Under Erlang Shen's command, besides the one thousand two hundred Caotou Shen, there were seven great generals.

Known as the Seven Saints of Meishan (Guai).

Regarding the Seven Saints of Meishan, in the real-world "Journey to the West," it refers to Erlang Shen and the Six Friends of Meishan collectively.

In "Investiture of the Gods," they are seven kinds of yaoguai; during that great war known as the "Investiture of the Gods," they were slain by Erlang Shen and later conferred as stellar officials.

The situation in the Mountains and Seas Realm is somewhat similar to both, yet also seems like yet unlike them.

The Seven Sages are seven kinds of yaoguai, and were subdued by Yang Jian into his command, but not all of them originated from the Investiture of the Gods war.

Among the seven yaoguai, the number one ranked White Ape Yuan Hong is still a powerhouse who can contend with Yang Jian; his strength is quite formidable.

"Those few from Meishan, I've only met them a few times and exchanged a sentence or two; I don't know them well," Tang Luo said.

I don't know much about them, so I can't make a judgment.

"Same here," Zhu Bajie said, "But Eldest Senior Brother has dealt with them several times."

To be more precise, you could even drop the "dealt with" at the end.

While Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie were sizing up the War God Hall and talking about the Meishan Seven Sages.

The horizon.

A vast, incomparably grand Xuanjin architecture stood "erected" above the cloud layers.

Inside the resplendent palace, several coiled dragon gold pillars stood amid swirling mist; on the wide throne in the depths, a man wore a magnificent Xuanjin robe.

This man was tall of stature, wore a long beard, wore an imperial crown, twelve strings of jade beads hanging down, motionless, half-covering his half-open eyes.

Mysterious and majestic.

Suddenly, a motionless gold-armored soldier in the hall moved; his originally rigid face suddenly became animated, as if he had just awakened.

The jade beads stirred lightly, striking against each other.

The Black Emperor on the throne opened his eyes fully, looking at the gold-armored soldier: "Flustered and panicked, what kind of decorum is this?"

His voice was unhurried, grand and solemn, revealing no joy or anger — a true heavenly sound.

"Your Majesty, something terrible has happened!"

The gold-armored soldier, none other than Vanguard Suo Chao, disregarding everything else, pushed through the crowd and knelt before the Black Emperor in a single motion.

The gold armor on his body did not hinder his movement in the slightest.

"Speak." The Black Emperor fell silent for a few seconds before speaking.

He knew very well what Suo Chao had gone to do; one of his own back courtyards seemed to have caught fire, and Suo Chao was the vanguard sent to extinguish it.

He just hadn't expected Suo Chao to return this fast.

Fast wasn't the issue.

When consciousness descends into an incense avatar, the strength that can be exerted is worlds apart from an incense avatar with only instinctual consciousness.

Many things look quite troublesome before descent; once descended, they're settled in minutes.

But after Suo Chao returned, his expression was so panic-stricken — that was the problem.

What did he see?

Could it be those little rats from the dark gutters jumping out to cause trouble again? Or the other four fellows? Or that Manifested Sage True Lord?

Thinking of this, the Black Emperor's face turned slightly gloomy.

The aura inside the palace suddenly grew oppressive — divine wrath, which is also heavenly wrath.

"He, that monk, that yaoseng suddenly appeared!" Suo Chao's voice was frantic, carrying unease and bewilderment, still shaken.

"What?" The Black Emperor stared blankly, "What monk, yaoseng..."

"Wait, you mean Tang Xuanzang?"

Pausing a moment, recalling Suo Chao's words, the Black Emperor's voice suddenly rose, sounding more real instead, no longer lofty and detached like before.

"Yes, I saw Tang Xuanzang — that very Tang Xuanzang." Suo Chao affirmed with absolute certainty; even though his hair had turned white, he would not mistake him.

It was definitely that monk.

Back then he had seen him from afar once; that monk was chatting and laughing freely with Yang Jian and a few other big shots.

After the laughter, he tore the Nine-Headed Bug apart with his bare hands — literally tore him apart by hand.

Although the Nine-Headed Bug is named a bug, it is a super yaoguai that can feed on true dragons.

The scene at the time made Suo Chao wonder which one was truly the yaoguai, and he finally understood why some people call him Holy Monk to his face but "yaoseng" behind his back.

"How could he appear?" The Black Emperor stood up.

"Don't know," Suo Chao said, "He just appeared suddenly, and moreover, he destroyed one of Your Majesty's statues."

"Anything else? Is that yaoseng alone, or... is that one, the Great Sage, present or not?" The Black Emperor asked.

"Hmm..." Suo Chao recalled the scene at the time; he had entered putting on a show as per convention, hadn't even seen clearly who the other party was, and the moment he saw clearly, he instinctively turned tail and ran.

Like a man striding boldly through a forest, planning to shoot a roe deer, a rabbit, a deer or such, suddenly catching sight of a huge bear standing by the path.

The first reaction is definitely to run for dear life, putting distance between them.

Oh, except for the fighting races.

Fortunately, Suo Chao has strength no matter how you put it; even a fleeting glimpse let him see clearly, and he recalled the scene on the spot.

Besides Tang Xuanzang, there was another person by his side, but it wasn't that Great Sage — it was the former Marshal Tianpeng, later the Clean Altar Envoy Zhu Bajie.

"He's not there; the one following him is Zhu Bajie," Suo Chao said.

"Good that he's not." The Black Emperor let out a slight breath of relief, but next breath his heart tightened again.

Just didn't see him — doesn't mean that one isn't truly there; and even if that one isn't there... Tang Xuanzang is definitely there.

Beside the couch, a fierce tiger has already appeared, issuing a threatening low growl.

How can the heart be at peace?

There must be a response.

The Black Emperor sat back down, closed his eyes.